1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner cartridge that can be used for an electrophotographic recording apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus, printer and copier.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recording apparatus equipped with a toner cartridge is known. A typical toner cartridge comprises a photosensitive drum, charger that uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum, toner hopper that contains toner, magnet roller that provides toner for the surface of the photosensitive drum and waste toner unit that removes and collects the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum.
Recently, a toner cartridge is required to have a structure easy to be taken apart for refilling. To meet this requirement, the toner cartridge may be composed of two separable parts. Such a toner cartridge can be taken apart into a part including the toner hopper and the other including the waste toner unit. The photosensitive drum and magnet roller are placed in either the part including the toner hopper or the other including the waste toner unit.
There is no problem if the photosensitive drum and magnet roller belong to the same part. However, a problem arises when the photosensitive drum and magnet roller belong to different parts. This is because both sections in this structure become easily separable from each other. Since the photosensitive drum should maintain a certain distance from the magnet roller, the recording performance deteriorates if the distance between the photosensitive drum and the magnet roller is not constant.